Pray While You’re Prey Weekly Devotions for SinglesWeek Five Good Grief

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

Quote from Pray While You’re Prey: “As I take this journey to discover what God wants me to see and do while I am prey, I want to write out prayers and scriptures that I use to get me through this experience. I want to remember my thoughts and meditations, so that my experience may help someone …. I hope to learn and to teach others...”

I remember, as a child, seeing Charlie Brown in various unappealing situations like getting picked on by his friends, being very untalented at athletics, and just plain being disrespected by a teacher with an indiscernible language. His reply most of the time was, “Good grief!” Those two words seem like quite the oxymoron. How in the world could grief ever be good? The Bible tells us that there will be trouble in this world in which we live temporarily. Not everyone on earth knows God and not everyone who knows God trusts Him enough to follow Him exclusively. That, my friends, is the perfect recipe for trouble. We all know about the obvious troubles of the world; bad economy, hatred and intolerance, high crime rates and violence. But, what about the troubles and the grief that we face internally? Can grief be good? It grieves my heart that three of my grandparents will never meet my children. It grieves my heart that I am single, but people throw away perfectly viable relationships all of the time. It grieves my heart that it may not be God’s plan for me to ever remarry. It grieves my heart that I know some very lovely people who have not even had a chance to be married. Can grief be good? Absolutely! When we allow God to comfort our grief, it can become a positive experience. When my grandmother passed away, I did not know that I would ever recover from the level of pain that I felt, but a year later, I found myself comforting people who were going through the same type of loss and feelings of hopelessness. The same way God comforts us when we are sick, mourning, or have been victimized; He also comforts us through our daily grief, which includes sadness over being single. There is no grief that God cannot handle. As the hymn writer said, “What a Friend we have in Jesus! All our sins and grieves to bear.” There is no limit to God’s comfort, but when He comforts us, we need to use the comfort we receive to comfort others. This is how we can give Him glory and experience good grief.

Prayer Thank You, God for being a Comforter.Please forgive me for holding onto grief instead of casting my cares upon You. Lord, please help me use the comfort You give me to comfort others. In Jesus’ Name, Amen